Potential of dried banana leaves for pyramidal microwave absorber design

Abandoned agricultural waste pose a risk to the environmental and public health. The polyurethane and polystyrene material for designing pyramidal microwave absorber are expensive and not environmental friendly. Tropical crop residue has potential to be used in the electromagnetic testing area. Nowadays, electromagnetic absorbing materials have been increasingly important in ensuring successful Radio Frequency (RF) anechoic chamber testing performance. New material had been research to reduce the cost of designing pyramidal microwave absorber. In this case, dried banana leaves are mixed with polyester and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) to give the best reflection loss performance to the pyramidal microwave absorber compare to the previous research using rice husk. This pyramidal microwave absorber is operating in the frequency range from 0.1 GHz to 20.0 GHz.